What is the true range of mental imagery?

Abstract

Most people say they can easily conjure mental sensations, such as mentally picturing their mother's face or having a vivid representation of a fictional world when reading a good book. Yet a considerable proportion of the population, by some estimates around 4 %, report that they cannot (Dance et al., 2022). This lack of inner perceptual sensation has been coined aphantasia (Zeman et al., 2010, 2015) – a “blind mind”. Mental imagery is often invoked in well-being exercises, athletic training, and in treatments for psychiatric disorders (Schwartz et al., 2022). It could also be a driving factor in intrusive thoughts and post-traumatic stress disorder (Brewin et al., 2010). Aberrant mental imagery could be linked with psychosis (Glazer et al., 2013). A better understanding of neural and cognitive processes that govern mental imagery would therefore help resolve ongoing controversies (Pylyshyn, 2002; Slotnick et al., 2005), and could advance our knowledge and maintenance of mental health. Recent years, since the report of a patient who lost mental imagery abruptly in adulthood (Zeman et al., 2010), have seen an explosion of scientific studies researching aphantasia, even though the phenomenon has been known since at least the 19th century (Galton, 1880).